Man electrocutes himself while charging phone in bath

[Ger1956]

I feel sorry for him and a family if he had one but,seriously maybe because it's smaller than a bread box it makes it safe , I don't know what's happening to this world.

 

[Opoponax]

Sounds like there is some sanity in the military.

Well, we're contractors. But we needed the military to approve our response.
The first approval was a guy whose worked with the object in question for over 20 years.
He actually asked if they maybe didn't need to add the warning to the procedure. To protect sailors. Safety is important.

We took him into the lab and went through the decision process. And showed him the hole. And asked if he felt like putting his finger in it...
Suddenly it was a case of 'Well, when you put it that way..."

In the spirit of military snafu's:

https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comm...en_have_always_hated_manuals/#bottom-comments

One of the great lines from this thread: "The American Army does not solve its problems,” one general noted, “it overwhelms them.”

 

[Malintent]

Incredibly the coroner thinks phones need to have a warning;



Independent

So now that some fuckwit has managed to kill himself doing something incredibly stupid, phone manufacturers may be required to put a warning on their phone.

No harm done. He made us all a favour by removing himself from the gene pool

exactly.. he deserves an award... the Darwin Award, that is.

 

[Malintent]

Circuit breaker would do no such thing. Current is too low for it to trip

How do you figure?

Remember, the total current flowing through the hot wire is the sum of all the currents flowing along all the paths.
Also, because current is inversely proportional to resistance, and resistance is directly proportional to distance, highest current density will be in the close vicinity of the receptacle.
Either you get more than enough current to trip the breaker, or the circuitous path through a meter of water and the guy's legs is not going to have enough current through it to be dangerous.

But that is not how GFIs (Ground Fault Interrupts) work, which are required by building code in areas where water can be present. You can tell if an outlet is GFI protected by the presence of "test" and "reset" buttons on the outlet itself. Pressing test should trip the interrupt and reset should put it back in operation. If you have an outlet by a sink or tub, it should be GFI.

When a person is electrocuted in a bath, current flows to ground (through the person). ANY current so much as trickling to ground will trigger a GFI, stopping the current immediately. A circuit breaker only trips if there is an overcurrent in the common wire... which may not happen if your body is providing resistance in current and creating ground for the current to flow, bypassing common.

 

[bilby]

How do you figure?

Remember, the total current flowing through the hot wire is the sum of all the currents flowing along all the paths.
Also, because current is inversely proportional to resistance, and resistance is directly proportional to distance, highest current density will be in the close vicinity of the receptacle.
Either you get more than enough current to trip the breaker, or the circuitous path through a meter of water and the guy's legs is not going to have enough current through it to be dangerous.

But that is not how GFIs (Ground Fault Interrupts) work, which are required by building code in areas where water can be present. You can tell if an outlet is GFI protected by the presence of "test" and "reset" buttons on the outlet itself. Pressing test should trip the interrupt and reset should put it back in operation. If you have an outlet by a sink or tub, it should be GFI.

When a person is electrocuted in a bath, current flows to ground (through the person). ANY current so much as trickling to ground will trigger a GFI, stopping the current immediately. A circuit breaker only trips if there is an overcurrent in the common wire... which may not happen if your body is providing resistance in current and creating ground for the current to flow, bypassing common.

There's a terminology difference at play here. What you Americans call a GFI is known in the U.K. as an ELCB - Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker. So to a British electrician, it's correct to refer to either ELCBs or high current circuit breakers as 'Circuit breakers'. (In Australia, a GFI/ELCB is called a 'safety switch' - so clearly there's no internationally recognised nomenclature).

And under British law, even ELCB protected outlets are not permitted in most bathrooms - hence the need in this case to run an extension cable from an outlet in the hallway.

 

[Derec]

But that is not how GFIs (Ground Fault Interrupts) work, which are required by building code in areas where water can be present. You can tell if an outlet is GFI protected by the presence of "test" and "reset" buttons on the outlet itself. Pressing test should trip the interrupt and reset should put it back in operation. If you have an outlet by a sink or tub, it should be GFI.

I know what GFCIs are and how they work, thank you very much. The comment you replied to referred not to the case in the OP but to the photo of guys standing in above ground wading pool with a power strip being precariously balanced on some beach sandals. There is no telling where that extension cord was running from, so you can't assume there is a GFCI involved. Even with the case in the OP, the house may be older and not brought up to code or he may have plugged the charger into an extension cord that was plugged in outside the bathroom.

When a person is electrocuted in a bath, current flows to ground (through the person). ANY current so much as trickling to ground will trigger a GFI, stopping the current immediately.

I know. The GFCI also designed to respond quickly, unlike circuit breakers which often have deliberate delay mechanisms to reduce nuisance trips. But the fact that he was electrocuted means that a GFCI wasn't involved.

A circuit breaker only trips if there is an overcurrent in the common wire... which may not happen if your body is providing resistance in current and creating ground for the current to flow, bypassing common.

I know, and all that and my comments took that into account.

- - - Updated - - -

And under British law, even ELCB protected outlets are not permitted in most bathrooms -

That's crazy!

hence the need in this case to run an extension cable from an outlet in the hallway.

Which may not be ELCB/GFCI protected. Meaning that the law made things more dangerous, not less.

 

[bilby]

I know what GFCIs are and how they work, thank you very much. The comment you replied to referred not to the case in the OP but to the photo of guys standing in above ground wading pool with a power strip being precariously balanced on some beach sandals. There is no telling where that extension cord was running from, so you can't assume there is a GFCI involved. Even with the case in the OP, the house may be older and not brought up to code or he may have plugged the charger into an extension cord that was plugged in outside the bathroom.

When a person is electrocuted in a bath, current flows to ground (through the person). ANY current so much as trickling to ground will trigger a GFI, stopping the current immediately.

I know. The GFCI also designed to respond quickly, unlike circuit breakers which often have deliberate delay mechanisms to reduce nuisance trips. But the fact that he was electrocuted means that a GFCI wasn't involved.

A circuit breaker only trips if there is an overcurrent in the common wire... which may not happen if your body is providing resistance in current and creating ground for the current to flow, bypassing common.

I know, and all that and my comments took that into account.

- - - Updated - - -

And under British law, even ELCB protected outlets are not permitted in most bathrooms -

That's crazy!

Not really; this is a consequence of a much more detailed set of rules and of typically small room sizes in Britain - I posted more details upthread with a link to the actual regulations.

Basically the minimum distance an outlet must be from a shower or bathtub means outlets are banned in small bathrooms - and there are not many large bathrooms in Britain - it's a small and crowded island.

hence the need in this case to run an extension cable from an outlet in the hallway.

Which may not be ELCB/GFCI protected. Meaning that the law made things more dangerous, not less.

Most safety regulations do, when people are determined to subvert them.

Every time someone designs something to be idiot proof, someone else designs a better idiot.

Don't forget that in the UK, most houses are very old, and were built under obsolete rules (and in many cases before there were rules at all). Houses that are less than a century old are the exception rather than the rule - and the vast majority of 'new' houses (ie those built after The Great War) were built in the 1950s.

Many homes have had electricity, and in some cases even indoor plumbing, added well after the initial construction of the buildings.